Month: June 2013

(By the way, you can check out Chain Gang Elementary from the DeKalb County Library. Brambleman, too.)

Anyway, Game on. Despite the fact that a city of Lakeside doesn’t make much sense except for some rather obvious and partisan reasons, The Lakeside City Alliance has met its fundraising goal and issued the following press release, which is, as you know, the first function of any government. (I do not endorse this message.)

From the Lakeside City Alliance:

Lakeside City Alliance Commissions Feasibility Study Group Reaches $30k Fundraising Goal to Hire UGA ATLANTA (June 25, 2013) – The Lakeside City Alliance announced today that it has signed a contract with the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia to commence a feasibility study for the proposed city of Lakeside. Leaders of the organization made the announcement today after reaching its fundraising goal of $30,000 to pay for the study.

“We are grateful that so many citizens in our community contributed to fund this study, which will determine whether we have the financial capacity within our borders to incorporate as a city,” said Mary Kay Woodworth, chairman of the LCA. “We have enormous momentum in support of our efforts, and we received a strong, positive response from residents throughout this area of North DeKalb county.”

“The events of the past few weeks in the county have contributed to a heightened desire by many to study the feasibility of becoming a city,” she said.

The Carl Vinson Institute will commence the financial study this summer and estimates that their work will be completed by late fall. The Georgia General Assembly will use the study when it considers legislation next year for a potential vote on incorporation of a city of Lakeside later in the year.

“We are eager to see what the University of Georgia experts have to say,” Woodworth added.

Volunteers formed the Lakeside City Alliance earlier this year to explore the pros and cons of incorporation of a new city in the north DeKalb community. The non-profit is comprised of area residents seeking to improve their community and is studying cityhood as a potential method of providing local control and a more efficient delivery of government services by keeping a small portion of county tax revenue in the local community for public safety, zoning, parks and other potential services.

State Sen. Fran Millar (R-Dunwoody) introduced legislation during the 2013 legislative session to allow a potential city of Lakeside to incorporate based on the outcome of a CVI study and a vote of area residents next year. If the study indicates that the city of Lakeside is feasible, it would be up to the General Assembly to put the proposal on the ballot in 2014 for local voters.

LCA has proposed city boundaries of approximately 20 square miles with approximately 63,000 residents. The current map is based on community input, and the boundaries could change again over the next few months as the community offers further feedback on the proposal. LCA will continue to keep to the community’s expressed desire not to create a vast, overpopulated and disconnected area that encompasses too large an area to be considered a true community of interest.

The current boundaries include North Druid Hills Road to the south, Interstate 85 to the west and the Embry Hills community to the northeast.

Praise for Chain Gang Elementary

“(Chain Gang Elementary) raises issues of race, class and white privilege in a way that is very nuanced and thoughtful. The ending is great–I read the last quarter in one evening because I didn’t want to put it down! … Overall a very enjoyable read, one that will make you feel outraged, sad, and hopeful. 4 stars” — Book Nook Club

“Though the premise for Chain Gang Elementary sounded intriguing, I admit I went into it not entirely sure what to expect, just hoping to be entertained. What I got instead was a book that not only gripped and entertained me as much as any thriller – who knew grade school politics could be so damn Machiavellian? – but which also brings to the table some very timely issues about the state of education in America…” — Elizabeth A. White

“Those who have written education columns for newspapers, survivors of parent/teacher organizations as well as many others will find that Grant has done an exceptional job of weaving educational fact and enticing fiction together. For that, he deserves an ‘A.’” —Jack Kennedy, former president, Education Writers Association

“Truth or fiction: ‘Chain Gang Elementary’ cuts too close to reality. A novel that reads like daily news.”—Diane Ravitch

I was paddled once in school. The experience was random, perfunctory, and stupid.

If you think we’ve moved beyond this practice as a society, think again. Corporal punishment in schools is alive and kicking—or rather, beating—in 19 states, many of them in the South, with its heavy influence of old-religion Bible beliefs.

It causes legal problems and creates inequities, but lawmakers are loath to change a practice that was good enough for them as kids. (Corporal punishment for state legislators is another issue … hmm.)

USA Today has published an article that highlights these problems: disproportionate beatings for boys and blacks, and therefore, obviously, black boys, as well as physical injury to students and resultant lawsuits.

In one cae, a child was paddled by a teacher for failing a test! Does that set off an alarm bell for you?

The newspaper reports:

The Tate County (Mississippi) School District recorded 455 instances of corporal punishment involving students without disabilities in 2009, according to the latest data available from the U.S. Department of Education. During that same period, 1,220 discipline cases — 91% involving black students — resulted in the paddle being used in Caddo Parish School Board schools in the Shreveport, La., area. And, Dekalb County Schools in Alabama recorded 1,355 paddling cases, the data show.

That use of corporal punishment is rooted in a strong Bible Belt belief in the proverbial “spare the rod and spoil the child,” says George Holden, a Southern Methodist University psychology professor. It’s reinforced by Southern sensibilities that favor obedience and respect for authority, he says.

“Most people were spanked when they were kids, and they think that’s the proper way to discipline,” says Holden, chairman of the 2011 Global Summit on Ending Corporal Punishment and Promoting Positive Discipline. “They make the erroneous correlation that spanking equals good discipline and if a child isn’t behaving, he must not have been spanked enough — that’s fallacious.”

Is this a great nation, or what? Who cares if they aren’t eagles? The Lakeside City Alliance sees the opportunity to raise funds off DeKalb CEO Burrell Ellis’s indictment, and what’s more American than that? Maybe when former School Superintendent Crawford Lewis goes on trial, they can raise money for vouchers! Just sayin’. Anyway, my thoughts on the issue are unchanged. Here’s the letter, along with some helpful reminders I added.

* * *

Friends and Neighbors,

The announcement earlier today of the multiple indictments of DeKalb CEO Burrell Ellis is disturbing and we can only hope that these allegations are not true. Irrespective of the outcome, it is clear that valuable county resources will be diverted in dealing with these issues. All DeKalb County residents will feel the impact of this event.

Old senator thinks students should go back to coffee and NoDoz for their all-nighters. Question of the day: Is he being useless?

From Talking Points Memo:

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said Sunday that colleges need to crack down on “academic doping,” or the use of stimulants like Adderall and Ritalin as a study aid.

“There are better ways to pull an all-nighter and stay up. There’s coffee, there’s things like NoDoz,” he told CBS affiliate WCBS in New York. “For somebody to call up and say ‘well, my doctor prescribed it at home, send me pills, here’s the prescription number…’ that’s not good enough…If a student gets 100 or 200 Adderall pills, even if they are legitimately entitled, they may lend a bunch to their friends.”

The senior senator from New York said that up to 35 percent of all college students report using stimulants like Adderall or Ritalin and recommended a number of policy changes for students prescribed these stimulants, including required follow-up diagnostics, more detailed medical histories and mental health evaluations with qualified health practitioners to verify the diagnoses.

Today I’m posting an excerpt from my novel, Chain Gang Elementary, that deals with issues of race and testing.

Chain Gang Elementary storyline: After a murder at Bonaire Elementary, Richard and Anna Lee Gray seek a good school for their son Nick in a safe neighborhood. Their search leads them to Malliford, a “school of excellence.” When redistricting sends scores of minority students to Malliford, iron-willed Principal Estelle Rutherford declares war on kids to raise test scores and save her reputation. Dissident parents revolt, electing Richard to head the Parent-Teacher Organization, and tensions explode.

From Chapters Thirteen and Fourteen:

Two days before the holiday break, just when PTO President Richard Gray thought he was going to have some peace, parent gadfly Stan McCallister chased him down in Malliford Elementary School’s front hall. Looking like a scruffy, crazed Hobbit, Stan breathlessly informed him of the latest outrage. “You hear about the ethnic cleansing?”

“Beg pardon?”

“It’s called ‘psychopharmacological therapy.’”

“Easy for you to say.”

“Two parents complained to Sasha Bramblett (one of the four black PTO board members Richard had recruited) and said the school counselor and psychologist threatened them. If they don’t put their boys on Ritalin, they’ll stick them in Special Ed, or ship them off to Wildwood, where the kids with behavior problems go.”

Richard tried to absorb this. He had wondered what counselor Cassandra Hardwick and psychologist Donzella James were up to lately, since were both clueless and hyperactive, an exceptionally dangerous combination in government employees. Had the pep talk by Miz Rutherford, the school’s principal, involved pep pills?

“Donzella James reported a mother to Family Services for neglect because she took her son off Ritalin,” Stan said. “Two of the boys are in Ms. Vandenburg’s class. The other is in Radcliffe’s. Somehow they let a black kid slip in,” Stan said sarcastically. “Obviously, they’re tracking—”

“Are all the kids you’re talking about black?”

“Yup. Since our counselor and psychologist are African-American, I guess they think that makes it all right. It doesn’t. People think Ritalin is a miracle drug, but it’s speed, and speed kills. This school is coercing parents to drug their children. It’s evil.” His eyes smoldered.

“I’ll look into it.” Richard felt a sickening weight settle in his belly. Yet another call to battle, and he didn’t know how to proceed. After all, such matters were confidential. He couldn’t just confront two staff members over something he’d heard third-hand. Or was it fourth?

“Happy holidays,” said Stan, backing away. “I hope Santa is good to you.”

The Ritalin policy was a nasty piece of business, a significant evil. The overriding issue was control, and the matter was not open for discussion. Mrs. Baines, the school’s vice principal, had suggested in her semi-diplomatic way that Richard mind his own business when he asked about it on the first day of winter term.

“Aren’t there better things for the PTO to do than investigate the school it serves?” she asked.

Richard smiled thinly. “We serve the children, not the school.”

“A distinction without a difference, Mr. Gray.”

She had no idea how obvious the difference was to Richard, or how deeply he meant what he’d said, but he saw no point in arguing.

Her attempt to stiff-arm him did nothing to quell his curiosity, however. He spoke to his son’s teacher, Avon Little, that afternoon, saying, “I heard some disturbing news.”

“Always some of that floating around. Go on.”

“The school is making parents medicate their children.”

“Hmm … Mr. Gray, they got some big idea about raisin’ test scores. We went ‘round on that. I wish I could paddle some of these boys sometimes, but pumpin’ ’em full of drugs is wrong. There’s folks tryin’ to turn this school into that Cuckoo’s Nest you talk about. And I know some parents don’t want their kids takin’ drugs. That’s their right. Miz Hardwick and James don’t think so, and they got the backing of you-know-who. I been fightin’ ’em on it. I got three reprimands already this year. This keeps up, they won’t let me in the building. I’ll be teachin’ on those benches you built.”

Richard chuckled drily. “What about the test scores?”

“There’s a meetin’ in the cafeteria tomorrow at one. Just sayin’.”

Richard left wondering how he could attend the mysterious meeting.

The answer came in the form of a demand the next day. Polly, the school secretary, called Richard at 7:30 a.m. to say teachers were out of coffee and Cindi Lou was out of town: “They need caffeine. Can you get it here this morning?”

He’d always cursed the teachers’ dependence on the PTO for coffee, which cost $700 a year. Now he saw an opportunity. “I’m working right now,” he said. “I can bring it by after lunch.”

“Is that the best you can do?”

Richard was certain she was conferring with the principal because he could hear scuba breathing in the background. “Yes.”

“All right. Have a nice day,” she grumbled.

When he showed up at 1:00 p.m., Polly gave him a scathing look.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “You don’t have to get up. I’ll take it to the cafeteria myself.”

“I wasn’t worrying and I wasn’t getting up. What brand?”

“Chock full o’Nuts.”

“Ha! Figures. Can’t resist an editorial comment, can you?”

He carried the plastic sack containing six bags of coffee to the cafetorium. Both sets of doors were closed. He peered through a small glass pane and saw a meeting in progress. Mrs. Baines, Miz Rutherford, and the school counselor sat on chairs in front of the stage. Psychologist Donzella James stood. He opened the door and tiptoed in. Fifty dark-hued boys sat at tables near the stage. Nearly half Mrs. Little’s class was there, including all those he tutored.

“Why don’t you just let us take the tests like everybody else?” one kid demanded.

“Ain’t no big deal. Not like it’s a grade,” interjected an older boy.

“We already got a ton of homework every night,” said a third. “I ain’t even gettin’ it done. They won’t let us take PE. And they make us sit at the convict table.”

Richard figured the boy was talking about what Nick called “working lunches.” The kids sentenced to them got only a peanut butter sandwich and an apple—without regard to allergies or braces.

Miz Rutherford stood up and shouted, “Young man, DO NOT call it that!”

Right then, Richard could imagine her wearing mirrored shades, holding a bullwhip as shackled students did homework at the big table. What we have heah is a failure to educate.

“Not as bad as last year, when they put me on the chain gang,” grumbled a sixth-grader.

“There was no such thing!” the principal fumed. “That was a lie perpetrated by the media!”

“How come we got to score seventy on the practice tests or we won’t get PE? I like PE!”

As more voices rose in protest, Donzella James looked up and spotted the interloper. From forty feet away, Richard saw the flaring whites of her eyes. She looked like she’d grabbed a bare electric wire.

“Shush!” said Miz Rutherford, who then noticed the psychologist’s discomfiture and followed her gaze. Her eyes grew wide, too. She instinctively straightened her dress, as if she’d been caught in a compromising act—like trying to screw fifty black and Hispanic boys.

“May I help you?” barked Donzella.

Richard walked toward the coffee urn, which sat on a metal table next to the wall outside the kitchen. “Don’t mind me. Just delivering the teachers’ coffee. I heard they were passing out this morning.” The boys broke out in riotous laughter. “Now that you mention it, I’d like to find out more about the chain gang.”

Miz Rutherford and Mrs. Baines looked like they’d eaten nails.

“Leave,” the principal said.

Richard set the coffee by the urn. “I wonder if their parents know what’s going on.”

“This doesn’t concern you.”

“I get that a lot. But I represent parents, and there have been complaints, mind you.”

He pivoted on his heel and walked out.

Five minutes after he returned home, the phone rang.

“Mr. Gray, I just wanted to clear up any misunderstanding about our Achievement Rally today,” said Mrs. Baines. “I’m afraid you have allowed yourself to get some misconceptions about what we’re doing.”

He knew Miz Rutherford was standing beside the vice principal. Even over the phone line, he could feel a disturbance in the Force. “Ain’t no misconceptions. Y’all putting black kids back on the chain gang,” he drawled. “What’s to misconceive ‘bout that?”

“That’s the kind of talk that concerns us. We’re simply pumping them up for tests next month.”

“The Standard Hightower Intellachievement Tests?”

“Yes.”

“Do all kids have to take a—”

“Yes!” she interjected. “And please don’t use the acronym.”

“Pretty accurate description, doncha think? What were they thinking when they called—”

“I really don’t know, Mr. Gray.”

“Kids have fun with it. Spell it out, you know. S-H-”

“We don’t allow it to be shortened. There’s a memo from central office on that.”

“That, I’d like to see. How to take a—”

“Mr. Gray. Please.”

“So what’s this about missing PE and getting seventies?”

“We’re just encouraging them to be all that they can be.”

“You want them to join the Army?”

“No! We’re trying to … upgrade test scores. You know we face challenges this year. With coaching and preparation and a winning attitude, we can turn this thing around.”

“Why doesn’t everyone get the pep talk?”

“We’re trying to focus our efforts on at-risk students.”

“Forgive me for my bluntness, but I saw the crowd you were pumping up. I think you’ve got some racial motivations here. You shouldn’t have singled out black kids. Everyone—”

“It was the counselor’s and psychologist’s idea. They’re—”

“They’re what?”

“They are what they are, Mr. Gray.”

“And because they’re black, that makes everything OK?”

“You said it, I didn’t.”

“I didn’t say it, I asked it, and it doesn’t make it all right.”

It was just as Stan suspected. Richard could see Miz Rutherford, still in the mirrored shades, calling her two minions into the office and telling them, “You all have simply got to improve your people’s test scores,” as she chewed on a piece of straw.

“It’s demeaning,” he said. “It should stop.”

“Perhaps you should realize it isn’t your concern.”

“Your call implies it is. Otherwise, you’d just ignore me.”

“We just know you have a habit of causing trouble—”

“’Scuse me? Would you like to try saying that again?”

“We know you have contacts in the media, and we … we need you to understand it’s a positive thing.”

“I understand you think it’s a positive thing.”

“You can be so difficult, Mr. Gray.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Baines.”

* * *

To read more about the infamous Standard Hightower Achievement Test, click here.To learn more about the Chain Gang Elementary and the reviews it’s been receiving, click here.
To see the Chain Gang blog, click here.